Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 286, Issue 1902, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0347
Keywords
mammals; Mesozoic; Cenozoic; adaptive radiation; ecomorphological disparity; Theria
Categories
Funding
- NERC [NE/L0021612/1]
- European Research Council [637483]
- European Union [677774]
- European Research Council (ERC) [637483] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
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The radiation of mammals after the Cretaceous/Palaeogene (K/Pg) boundary was a major event in the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems. Multiple studies point to increases in maximum body size and body size disparity, but patterns of disparity for other traits are less clear owing to a focus on different indices and subclades. We conducted an inclusive comparison of jaw functional disparity from the Late Triassic-latest Eocene, using six mechanically relevant mandibular ratios for 256 species representing all major groups. Jaw functional disparity across all mammals was low throughout much of the Mesozoic and remained low across the K/Pg boundary. Nevertheless, the K/Pg boundary was characterized by a pronounced pattern of turnover and replacement, entailing a substantial reduction of non-therian and stem-therian disparity, alongside a marked increase in that of therians. Total mammal disparity exceeded its Mesozoic maximum for the first time during the Eocene, when therian mammals began exploring previously unoccupied regions of function space. This delay in the rise of jaw functional disparity until the Eocene probably reflects the duration of evolutionary recovery after the K/Pg mass extinction event. This contrasts with the more rapid expansion of maximum body size, which occurred in the Paleocene.
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